I had an idea for an alternative solution to this issue we see a lot around the bee, but I wanted to do a little research first to see if my idea would actually solve the problem.

So why do you personally want to delete posts? Is it just that you don’t want that text to exist anywhere on the internet? Is it the worry that if someone learns your username, they can easily find it by going through your profile?

Tell me, bees!!

ETA I’m not talking about deleting posts after a certain date, etc, because they are so old. I’m talking about bees wanting to delete specific posts of theirs because they find them embarrassing or compromising, etc.

I’m sorta tied between #1 and #2. Mostly I think posts should have an expiration date, like after a while they just go away into the internet abyss. Either the issue has been resolved, or the post isn’t relevant anymore. If you make a more emotional post the responses can be very helpful in that time, but a year or two later there isn’t much use for it.

@MeiFrancis: As @Cory_loves_this_girl: mentioned, I am hesitant to post and ask for advice sometimes because It’ll be on here forever after the issue gets resolved and sometimes its not even that big of a deal. I wish I could just come and ask for a different perspective and then take it down after I’ve updated that its been resolved. I have seen a lot of threads where a bee will post something about her wedding like, “what do you think of my invites” and another bee will post, I hope you are seriously re-consider marrying that guy if thats the one you wrote xyz post about back who knows how many months ago. Hope that made sense!

I guess one solution would be to have the post unattached from your user name and profile, if that makes sense. Like the post would look like it was made from an anonymous user rather than you. It would also be an easy way for people to ask questions anonymously rather than creating those ghost accounts.

Personally, I don’t like being a member of a forum where users can just randomly delete their post on a whim. it leaves the door wide open for people to post whatever they want and quickly delete it before a mod sees it.

I know I always try to post in a manner that is civil and smart. Sometimes the sarcasm comes thrugh and its awfully hard to know whether someone is joking or really just trying to be a psudo troll.

Plus, I would like the Bee to indicate whether someone has edited their post. Some forums do that…I like that. I typically only edit for a spelling or grammar faux pas, but I like to see that done! There was a thread a few days ago where the OP completely edited her first post and the thread title– so many of the first few responses didn’t make any sense at all. I think the people who came to the thread later were just fighting with the first responders and it just got weird. And seemed odd.

There’s more accountability when people cannot delete their posts. But I would also like an indicator if someone has also edited their post.

@CaliHoya: That’s what I was going to suggest, or to at least hide it from your profile so that someone who stumbles upon you or knows your username won’t be able to find it by looking back through posts you wrote

I had someone do that to me once–said some super inflammatory things, and when I called her out on it, she completely changed what she had said to me in the first place, making it look like I had completely overreacted. I am lucky this happened when I had enough of a presence here that people generally knew I was a good person, but I can see a Newbee maybe being written off as a bitch if the same person did this to her a few times, like in my case.

Which brings me to my opinion about being able to delete posts. I don’t think you should be able to do it. In real life, if you say something, you can’t take it back. We are a community here, and part of being a community is acting properly, and accepting the consequences like an adult if you choose not to act properly. I think everyone should get 3 mulligans, because sometimes you can post something you don’t REALIZE is inflammatory, and you come off in a way that is completely not like you intended and don’t realize it until it’s too late to edit. But if a person needs to delete all the time, they’re probably not being very nice or respectful.

I definitely think there should either be an expiration date for posts, or posts should be deleted if the bee is no longer a member. There are over 8,000 pages! I wonder how many pages you’d need to go through just to see posts from like a year ago?!

For me personally I think threads/posts should be deleted after so many months. I hate when and usually is a newbee posting on especially say a emotional post that when you look at the date is over a year old. Then you get others posting on that when more than likely that situation is done with since you know it is over a year old…